Chapter Nine: Entering the Ranking List

After more than two hours, Lu Yang reached level 1 at 10%. At this point, he had climbed to 10th place on the ranking leaderboard. If he hadn’t wasted an hour obtaining the Demon God’s Heart and another hour cooking electric eel meat, he would have easily claimed the top spot.

As for the top nine players on the leaderboard, they were all leaders of major guilds. Leveraging their numerical advantage to clear mobs, their leveling speed was not slower than Lu Yang’s. Take the guild leader of the Supreme Dynasty, the number one on the leaderboard, Xiong Ba Fengyun, for example. He entered the game with 50,000 guild members and immediately occupied a beginner town’s level one wild monster zone. Using ten mages and exploiting the game’s flaw where the first to attack a monster gets it, Xiong Ba would strike the monster once while the other ten members helped finish it off instantly, securing the top leaderboard position.

Just as Lu Yang prepared to continue hunting monsters, a ringtone reminiscent of a phone notification sounded. Checking his interface, he found a message had been sent to him.

Previously, to avoid trouble, Lu Yang had disabled the option to receive friend requests from strangers. The only person who could message him was Blue Feather, who was already on his friend list.

Opening the message, it was indeed from Blue Feather.

“Master, you’re amazing! You’ve actually made it into the top ten on the leaderboard.”

With ten years of gaming experience, Lu Yang thought it would be useless if he couldn’t enter the first tier. He replied, “Not bad. How are things on your end? Have you started the quests?”

“We’re still gathering electric eel meat,” Blue Feather responded.

“Why so slow?” Lu Yang asked.

“It’s not slow; electric eels are really hard to catch,” Blue Feather said, a bit exasperated.

Lu Yang suddenly realized it was just the server’s opening. Everyone was still a newcomer, and catching the fast-swimming electric eels was nowhere near as easy for them as it was for him.

“No rush, take your time. Remember, when you go to the cave to level up later, be careful not to get noticed. If others follow you inside, it won’t be a secret anymore.”

Blue Feather nodded, saying, “We’ll be careful.”

Suddenly, Lu Yang remembered something and said, “Little girl, promise me one thing—don’t tell anyone my name. You haven’t said anything yet, right?”

Blue Feather teased, “Of course not! Don’t worry, I know you want to keep a low profile.”

Lu Yang could imagine Blue Feather’s little mischievous expression and smiled, “Since you’re so obedient, I’ll bring you a gift next time we meet.”

Blue Feather replied with a smiley face, and their chat ended.

In truth, Blue Feather hadn’t revealed Lu Yang’s name—partly because she didn’t want to, and partly because Xia Yuwei and Zheng Yuan hadn’t even asked.

Zheng Yuan harbored deep resentment towards Lu Yang, while Xia Yuwei, proud and aloof, thought that once their studio grew stronger, Lu Yang as a solo player would come to them for help if needed, so there was no need to “lower her dignity” now.

After returning the quest, Xia Yuwei roasted the electric eel meat and told the group, “Now that we have supplies, we have to focus on leveling up.”

Zhang Zibo said, “Exactly. I don’t understand how those on the leaderboard level up so fast. From level zero to one requires so much experience and monsters are so few. The top nine guild leaders I get, but even Lu Yang, who no one knows, is already level one.”

Xia Yuwei nodded. “There are so many experts in the game. If we don’t hurry, we’ll fall behind the first tier. One step slow means many steps behind, making it hard to develop later.”

Zheng Yuan, who’d been silent since finding the electric eels, angrily said, “That Lu Yang is so ungrateful. I wanted to buy his strategy guide, but he even disabled his friend function.”

Zhang Zibo sighed, “I tried just now too. It’s a pity. If we could contact Lu Yang, maybe we’d have a chance to enter the leaderboard.”

The top nine on the leaderboard were all well-known guild leaders who had recruited extensively on the “Second World” forum. Lu Yang was the only unknown newcomer. They guessed Lu Yang must have found a quick leveling method.

Blue Feather listened to their conversation about Lu Yang, whom they had just met, and felt very strange inside.

Zheng Yuan impatiently asked, “What do we do now? Where do we level up?”

Xia Yuwei and Zhang Zibo had no good ideas either. The game was crowded everywhere, and they hadn’t expected it to be so popular. Just as everyone was at a loss, Blue Feather raised her small hand and said, “I know a place for leveling where no one will compete for monsters.”

Xia Yuwei was startled, asking, “Where?”

Blue Feather said, “Coordinates 7985.9867. There’s an old man there. If we complete the tasks he gives, he’ll teleport us to a cave full of level one and two monsters. No one else knows about this place yet, so it’s perfect for us.”

Everyone thought Blue Feather was joking, but she gave precise coordinates and instructions.

Xia Yuwei was surprised. “How do you know? Is it true?”

Blue Feather playfully stuck out her tongue. “I don’t know either. The person who gave us the electric eel quest told me before leaving.”

Hearing it was Lu Yang again, Zheng Yuan shouted in jealousy, “What a joke! If he really knew such a place, why wouldn’t he go there? It’s definitely fake. I don’t believe it.”

Blue Feather wanted to tell Zheng Yuan that Lu Yang didn’t go because he had an even better place. After all, he was already level one and ranked tenth on the leaderboard.

Xia Yuwei frowned lightly and said, “The ‘Second World’ will surely become humanity’s true second world in the future. We’ve decided to develop this game deeply, so we shouldn’t make enemies easily. Zheng Yuan, since this person knows the electric eel recipe and now reveals a secret hunting spot, he might have participated in the public beta. We should go check it out. If it’s fake, we lose nothing. If true, our guild’s early development will accelerate greatly.”

Zhang Zibo nodded in agreement, “I agree. Given the current situation, I’m in favor of trying.”

Among the seven wealthy heirs, including Xia Yuwei, five agreed, while only Zheng Yuan and his close ally opposed. When the studio was formed, they’d established majority rule, so Xia Yuwei led the group toward the coordinates Lu Yang provided.

In truth, Zheng Yuan wasn’t a fool. He suspected the cave’s authenticity but didn’t want Blue Feather to have more contact with this mysterious newcomer. After all, currency exchange would open in 15 days, and they could use money to buy upgrades and catch up to the first tier anyway.